Calculating machine



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Filed 001;. 1, 1937 17 Sheets-Sheet 17 Attorney Patented May 13, 1941 CALCULATING MACHINE Arthur Thomas, Wallington, England, assignor to Powers Accounting Machines Limited, London, England, a company of Great Britain Application October 1, 1937, Serial No. 166,822 In Great Britain October 10, 1936 1 Claim.

This invention relates to calculating machines.

According to the present invention a calculating machine comprises two accumulators each provided with a set of denominational actuators, the actuators of one accumulator being set directly from settable stops projected into their path and connected to the actuators of the other accumulator, means for engaging both accumulators with their actuators simultaneously during each machine cycle, after said actuators have been set from the stops, means operative during a total taking operation and tending to cause both accumulators to engage with their actuators prior to the movement of the latter from normal position, means for causing two operations of the total taking mechanism to occur successively and interlocking mechanism operative during total taking operations preventing one accumulator from engaging with its actuators when the other accumulator is in engagement with its actuators and vice versa.

In order that the invention may be more com.- pletely understood a preferred embodiment according thereto will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings which illustrate the invention as applied to a record card controlled tabulating machine wherein the total taking mechanism is under the control of a designation sensing pin box such as that described in U. S. patent specification No. 1,661,684, issued March 6, 1928.

In the drawings:

Figs. 1 and 1A together show the lower portion of the tabulator in elevation viewed from the right hand side;

Figs. 2 and 2A together form a view in cross section on the line IIII in Fig. 5 and show the details of the driving mechanism for the sensing pin boxes;

Figs. 3 and 3A together illustrate the drive for the total shaft and the means for controlling said shaft from the designation sensing pin box, the drive for the total shaft being shown in cross section on the line III-III of Fig. 5;

Figs. 4 and 4A together show the lower portion of the tabulator in elevation viewed from the left hand side and include the mechanism for controlling the timing of the engagement of the accumulator wheels with their actuators;

Figs. 43 and 4C show details of the mechanism for controlling the engagement of the accumulator wheels with their actuators;

Fig. 5 is a plan of the driving mechanism for the pin boxes and the total shaft;

Figs. 6 and 6A together show the upper part of LEO the machine in elevation from the left hand side with'part of the side plate removed to show the accumulator control mechanism;

Fig. '7 shows a detail of the mechanism. for effecting engagement of the sub total accumulator wheels with their actuators;

Fig. 8 is a View to a larger scale showing part of the mechanism for controlling the timing of the engagement of the accumulator wheels with their actuators, viewed from the side opposite from that seen in Fig. 4; t

Fig. 9 shows the mechanism shown in Fig. 8 viewed from the same side as that seen in Fig. 4;

Fig. 10 is a plan of the mechanism of Fig. 9;

Fig. 11 shows to an enlarged scale a detail of the mechanism. shown in Figs. 8 to 10;

Fig. 12 shows a further detail of the mechanism for controlling the timing of the engagement of the accumulator wheels with their actuators, and

Fig. 13 and 13A together illustrate the base of the machine in cross section;

Fig. 14 illustrates the stop basket;

Fig. 15 is a timing diagram showing the operation of the adding mechanism during one revolution of the main shaft; I

Figure 16 is a timing diagram. of four consecutive revolutions of the main shaft, including a sub-total taking operation;

Figure 17 is a timing diagram. of seven consecutive revolutions of the main shaft including a sub-total taking operation followed by a grand total taking operation.

In the construction shown in the drawings the machine comprises a base portion in which is mounted the main drive shaft I to which is secured a gear wheel 2.

Secured to a sleeve 2a freely mounted on the main shaft I of the tabulator is a gear wheel 2 (Fig. 2) driving a second gear wheel 3 secured to a shaft 4 on which are mounted the eccentrics 5 for reciprocating the designation pin box 6 which detects changes in designation in the cards. The designation pin box 6 is constructed in substantially the same manner as that described in U. S. patent specification No. 1,661,684. The mechanism for reciprocating the pin box is, however, constructed in the following manner:

The sleeve 2c is normally driven from the main shaft I through a pawl H0 pivoted to the wheel 2 at Mill) and normally held by spring H00 in engagement with a tooth III on a clutch disc I I2 secured to the main shaft I.

In order that the designating pin box may remain at rest while the holes on one card are being compared with the records retained in the pin box of the holes in the first card of a group the driving gear wheel 2 has a certain number of teeth removed between the points A and B so that during the period in which the designating pin box remains stationary there is no connection between its driving eccentric and the main shaft. In order to prevent movement between the two gear wheels 2 and 3 a disc 1 is secured to the side of'the driving gear wheel 2 and. has the same diameter as the pitch circle of this gear wheel. This disc has two recesses 8 and 9, one located at each end of the portion A-B of the driving gear wheel which is formed without teeth, and secured to the driven gear wheel is a plate II] having two projections I I, 2. While the driving gear wheel 2 rotates and turns the driven gear wheel 3 the plate I secured to the driven wheel comes round until at the moment when the mutilated portion A-B of the driving wheel 2 reaches the driven wheel 3 the two projections I2 on the plate In which is secured to the latter come into engagement with the periphery'of the disc 1 secured to the driving wheel, whereby the driven wheel 3 is locked until the driving wheel 2 has turned sufficiently to bring the recess 8 in the disc 1 attached thereto into engagement with the projection II on the plate I0 secured to the driven wheel. When this engagement occurs the driven wheel is turned sufiiciently to cause re-engagement of its teeth with the teeth on the driving wheel.

The item sensing pin box indicated generally at 200 in Fig. 13, is of the form described in British patent specification No. 401,012 and is reciprocated by means of eccentrics 20| secured to a shaft I5 driven from the main shaft I through gear wheels I6, I1 and I8, of which the wheel I6 is secured to the sleeve 2a.

The gear wheel I6 has the teeth cut away over' a portion of its periphery between the points C and D and a disc I9 is secured to the side of this gear wheel I6. This disc has two recesses 20 and 2| and co-operates with projections 22 and 23 on a plate 24 attached to the intermediate wheel I 1 which is mounted on a stub shaft I1a, the action being similar to that of the disc 1 and plate In already described. By this means the item sensing pin box is caused to move rapidly down on to the card and up again, whereby the item read from the card is retained in the pin box.

The cards are fed from a magazine 263 (Fig. 13A) to feed rolls 204 by a picker 205 and the feed rolls 204 convey the cards to the designation pin box 6 where they are arrested by a card stop 206 of usual form attached to the pin box 6 so as to move up and down with it.

From the pin box 6 the cards are conveyed by feed rolls 201 to the item sensing pin box 200 in which they are arrested by a card stop 20B attached to pin box 200. From the pin box 200 the cards are discharged to a receiver 269 by feed rolls 2).

The picker 295 is carried on a block 2| I mounted to slide horizontally on two rods 2|2 of which only one appears in Fig. 13A, and the block 2 is reciprocated by means of a link 2| 3 operated by an eccentric 2| 4 secured to the shaft I5 and having a sheave 2 I 40. to which the link 2 I3 is pivoted at 2 I5.

Mounted above the item pin box 206 is a connection box 2|6 (Fig. 13) through which the items sensed from the cards are transmitted by wires 2I1 in the usual manner to the stops 26 in the stop basket (Figs, 6 and 14) The stop basket, which is arranged to handle cards punched with one hole to represent each digit is a modification of the basket shown in Fig. 8 of U. S. patent specification. No. 2,140,136 issued December 13, 1938.

As can be seen from Fig. 14 each stop 26 except the nought stop 26a. is normally held down by a spring 220 and carries a pin 22| co-operating with a cam face 222 on a slide 223 of which the end 224 abuts against a tail 225 of a bell crank I51, I60 pivoted on a shaft I58 mounted in the basket frame. One arm I51 of the bell crank carries a pin I56 engaging in a slot 229 in the nought stop 26a and the other arm of said bell crank is normally disposed adjacent a bail |6| secured to the back total shaft I62 of the machine (Fig, 6). A spring I59 maintains the bell crank in the position shown in Fig. 14 and a spring 232 attached to the nought stop 26a. maintains the upper end of the slot 229 in engagement with the pin I56.

When any stop 26 is raised by the action of a sensing pin finding a hole in a card its pin 22| acts on the cam surface 222 and pushes the slide 223 to the left in Fig. 14 whereby the bell crank I51, I6!) is rocked clockwise. This movement of the bell crank causes the arm I51 thereof to pull the nought stop 26a downwards through the action of the spring 232 thereby releasing the associated sector 21 so that the latter can move up to the stop 26 which has been set from the card.

Inthe machine now being described thereis one front accumulator which receives items from the card and accumulates sub-totals and one rear accumulator which accumulates grand totals.

The sectors 21 (Fig. 6A) of the front (or subtotal) accumulator are connected by links 26 to the sectors 29 of the rear (or grand total) accumulator and the wheels of both accumulators are so controlled that on each adding cycle both sets of wheels are engaged with their sectors after the latter have been set from the stops 26. The sub-total sectors 21 are set directly from the stops and the grand total sectors 29 are set indirectly from the stops through the agency of the front sectors.

The sectors 21 and 29 are held in their restored positions by a restoring bar 30 carried between arms 3| pivoted at 32 to the machine frame, these arms being connected by links 33 to arms 34 secured to a sector restoring shaft 35 (Figs. 1 and 6A). The shaft 35 is oscillated from the main shaft I by means of an arm 36 (Fig. 1) secured to the shaft 35 and connected by a link 31 to one end of a lever 38 pivoted to the frame at 39 and of which the other end carries a roll 38a engaging a cam 40 secured to the main shaft I.

The front or sub-total accumulator wheels are indicated at 4| and the rear or grand total accumulator wheels at 42 (Fig. 6)

In order to control the engagement and disengagement of the front accumulator wheels 4| a rocking plate 43 is pivoted to the frame at 44 and carries two projecting pins 45, 46, one on each side of the centre about which it rocks. Passing between these two pins is a vertical link 41 (Fig. 4), hereinafter referred to as the subtotal link having a head 48 provided with two slots 49, 5|], one at each side.

The sub-total link 41 is pivoted at its lower end to a lever 5| pivoted to the machine frame at 52 and carrying a roller engaging in a cam track formed in the rear face of a disc 53 fast to the main shaft By this means-the sub total link 4! is reciprocated once for each revolution of the main shaft. The head 48 lies between the two pins 45, 46 on the rocking plate and the slots 49, 50 co-operate with the pins 45, 46 in a manner which will be described later to rock the plate 43 clockwise or anti-clockwise. A clockwise movement of the plate 43 moves the accumulator wheels 4| out of engagement with the sectors 21, and a counterclockwise movement of the plate 43 moves the wheels 4! into engagement.

The mechanism which is operated by the rocking plate 43 to engage and disengage the subtotal accumulator wheels 4| forms no part of the present invention and is fully described in my co pending patent application Serial No. 166,823 entitled Improvements in calculating machines, filed October 1, 1937 (now Patent No. 2,198,708 issued April 30, 1940). In order to enable the present invention to be fully understood, however, a brief description of this mechanism will now be given.

The accumulator wheels 4! are carried between a pair of arms 61 pivoted to the machine frame at 68 and extending substantially horizontally below the toothed sectors 21 with which the wheels are to engage. Extending between the two arms 61 is the shaft E9 on which the wheels 4| rotate. At the centre of this shaft 59 is pivoted an element 7B which is rigidly connected to an extension 16a pivoted at its lower end to a crank pin H on a disc 12 secured to a crank shaft 13 rotatably mounted in the machine frame (Figs. 6A and '7).

Secured to one end of this shaft 73 is an arm l4 pivoted by a pin and slot connection 75 to an operating lever 15 which is pivoted at a point 11 between its ends to an arm 18 projecting from the rocking plate 43 which is actuated by the subtotal link 41.

The end of the operating lever 16 remote from the arm 14 on the crank shaft carries a pin 19 engaging in a cam slot 80 formed in a plate 8| fixed to the machine frame, this cam slot being shaped to constrain the operating lever to execute a predetermined motion when displaced longitudinally.

When the accumulator wheels are in engagement with their sectors 21 the crank pin H is in its uppermost position (Fig. 7) and the arm 14 on the crank shaft 13 is in line with the operating lever 75, the pin 19 on the latter being at the end of the cam slot 88 which is remote from the arm 14 (Fig. 6)

To cause disengagement of the accumulator wheels the actuating plate 43 is rocked clockwise whereby the operating lever 18 is moved longitudinaily towards the arm 14 on the crank shaft. As the operating lever moves, the cam slot 89 causes it to swing about the pivot Tl whereby it is attached to the arm 18 projecting from the rocking actuating plate. This swinging movement combined with the longitudinal movement causes the end of the operating lever which is pivoted on the arm 14 on the crank shaft to swing in an approximately circular path about the crank shaft as centre, whereby the arm on the crank shaft and the shaft H3 itself are turned through 180, the pin and slot connection 75 between the operating lever 16 and the arm 14 allowing for any discrepancy between the purely circular motion of the arm 14 and the actual path followed by the end of the operating lever. A spring loaded detent' lever 82 having two recesses 83, 84 for engagement with a pin 85 on the plate 43 serves to retain the latter in either of its two positions.

In order to control the grand total accumulator wheels 42 a vertical link 55 (Fig. 4), hereinafter referred to as the grand total link, is provided. This link 55 passes between two pins 56, 51 on a rocking plate 58 secured to a grand total shaft 59 and the link 55 has a head 69 provided with two slots til, 62 which co-operate with the pins 56 and 51 in a manner similar to that in which the slots 49, 5|! in the head 48 on the subtotal link 41 co-operate with the pins 45, 46.

The grand total accumulator wheels 42 are mounted on a shaft 42!! carried in cam slots 42| in two rocking plates 422 of which only one is shown in Fig. 6. Each plate 422 is mounted on a pivot 423 and is formed with a tail 424 having a slot 425 in which engages a pin 426 in an arm 42! freely mounted on the grand total shaft 59. The arm 42'! carries a pin 428 against a plate 429 secured to the shaft 59. A spring 438 tends to maintain the pin 428 in contact with the plate 429. 4

When the shaft 59 rocks clockwise (Fig. 6)

' the plate 429 acting through the pin rocks the tail 424 counter-clockwise and the cam slots 42| bring the wheels 42 out of engagement with the sectors 29.

If then the shaft 59 is rocked counter-clockwise back to the position shown in Fig. 6 the spring 43!) pulls the arm 42'! also counter-clockwise whereby the tail 424 is rockedclockwise thereby effecting engagement of the wheels with the sectors, the spring 439 acting as a safety device to prevent damage.

At its lower end the grand total link is pivoted to a bell crank 63, which is pivoted to the frame at 64 and carries a roll engaging in a cam track 68 formed in the disc 53 on the opposite side thereof from that in which the cam track controlling the link 41 is formed.

When the machine i at rest (position 298 in timing diagrams, Figs. 15 to 1'7) and set for adding' operations both the sub and grand total accumulator wheels 4| and 42 are in engagement with their sectors 21 and 29 and the vertical sub and grand total links 41 and 55 are in their lowermost positions. Also each of these links is in a lateral position such that its slotted head 48 and 69 respectively is in engagement with the left hand pin (45 and 55) on the corresponding rocking plate (43, 58) as shown in Fig. 4. Consequently an upward movement of the sub and grand total links will rock the plates 43 and 58 to bring the accumulator wheels out of engagement.

When the main shaft turns, the cams in the disc 53 lift both the sub and grand total links 4'! and 55 before the sectors El and 29 commence to move out from zero and consequently while the sectors are being set from the stops the accumulator wheels are out of engagement.

Before the sectors commence to return the cam disc 53 on the main shaft lowers both the sub and grand total links, thereby putting the accumulator wheels into engagement so that as the sectors return they transfer the item read from the card to both sub and grand total accumulators.

When a total is to be taken a shaft 86 (Figs. 1 and 4) hereinafter referred to as the front total shaft is rocked and sets the mechanism which controls the total taking operation as will be explained later.

The rocking movement of the front total shaft which rests 

